No evidence of death threats on slain doctor – Police

April 28, 2012 : Comfort Oseghale

Two weeks after the murder of Dr. Samuel Adegboyega, who was shot in his clinic on Easter Monday in Lagos, the police are yet to make a headway in their investigation.

Adegboyega was shot by two gunmen in his hospital. He died a few hours later at the Oke-Odo General Hospital in the Abule-Egba area of Lagos. His death is allegedly the handiwork of the husband of a patient who had died during childbirth just the day before.

Clinic where the killing took place

A source close to the police told CRIME DIGEST that there was no formal report of any threats made against Adegboyega’s life. Also, some members of the staff of the clinic, who were present on Easter Sunday when the patient died after childbirth, have refused to honour an invitation for a chat with the police.

The source denied claims by Adegboyega’s family that the police had seized the medical records of the dead patient.

In an interview with CRIME DIGEST, the Lagos State Police Public Relations officer, Mr. Jospeh Jaiyeoba, said, “There was no formal statement regarding any threats made to Adegboyega. The only people who can make statements concerning the events of that Easter Sunday are the deceased and the workers of the clinic that were with him at the time of the incident. Invitations were sent to those who worked with him on Easter Sunday, but they have refused to cooperate with the police.

“They are the only ones who can say if Adegboyega was threatened or not. We have already spoken to the members of staff who were in the clinic on the day Adegboyega was shot dead and they said nothing to that effect.”

Another source said Adegboyega had a total number of 11 persons working in his clinic. About nine of them were with him on Easter Sunday and the others were in the clinic on the day he was shot. While the latter had made written statements with the police; the former had refused all attempts to aid police investigation.

SATURDAY PUNCH, in its issue of April 14, 2010, had reported Adegboyega’s eldest son Bayo as saying that his father was threatened the day before his death by the husband of a dead patient.

Bayo had said, “It was after his (Adegboyega) death that we learnt that my father had been threatened the day before over a patient, who had died after childbirth.

“Although the man and his wife are well known to my father, we don’t know the man’s name or his wife’s for that matter. It is only the clinic’s members of staff who can say something about the man and they are currently in detention at Panti.”

CRIME DIGEST investigations show that the husband of the dead patient is one Mr. Tobias Imeh, a bricklayer who lives with his family on Folorunsho Street, Oko-Oba.

When our correspondent visited Imeh’s residence, his single room apartment was under locked. A neighbour said on the condition of anonymity that the widower was aware that he was being accused of having a hand in Adegboyega’s death.

The source said, “Imeh went out this morning but I don’t know where. I can’t say when he will return. He is aware though that he is being suspected by members of Adegboyega’s family and friends of having a hand in his death. It was published in the newspapers. It is sad that anyone would think of blaming him. I mean this is a man that is struggling to make ends meet. He has just bought a motorcycle on hire purchase and has not finished paying for it. How then can such a man find the means to hire killers?

“On the day he took his wife to the hospital, Imeh had to borrow N2, 000. It was the third time the woman would be taken to the clinic to be delivered of a baby. As far as I know, Imeh never quarrelled with Adegboyega over his wife’s death. That is the clinic his entire family goes to for treatment. There were times when his children were ill and after treating them, Adegboyega would tell Imeh to pay what he could afford and bring the rest later. There is really no basis for all this suspicion.”

The neighbour cleared the air on allegations that Imeh remained behind in Lagos to plan Adegboyega’s demise instead of travelling home with his wife’s body. He said, “In Igbo tradition, a man cannot carry his wife’s corpse home. The same thing applies to a woman who loses her husband. It is the relatives of the man that are supposed to do this. When Imeh was told that his wife had given up the ghost, he informed his relatives and about six of them went with him to the clinic.

“Although I didn’t go with them, there was no altercation between them and Adegboyega. They only went to carry the corpse with an ambulance.”

Imeh is expected to travel home at a later date for the burial of his wife.

When CRIME DIGEST contacted one of the nurses working in Adegboyega’s clinic via the telephone, she refused to answer her calls and eventually switched off her phone.

Meanwhile, the clinic where the late doctor had worked for more than 20 years, which is situated on No 13 Ogundele Street in Oja-Oba, is now deserted. There was no sign of life in the building when our correspondent visited there. It has since been locked after Adegboyega was shot at the entrance of the compound on Easter Monday.

What an unfortunately incident! No matter how it is viewed, (financial misunderstanding or treatment failure) the attack cannot be justifiable!
However, if the medical profession is not sanitised in Nigeria, getting qualified and rational doctors into the professional bodies, and the service failures continue in government hospitals, we are likely to witness increase in private hospitals receiving wrong class of patients, poor patients that can only be catered for by government, but find their way into private hospitals because government hospitals are on strike! Unfortunately innocent doctors in private hospitals are likely to be the victims of the faulty judgements of such low-class patients, patients that cannot follow through treatment plans due to financial incapacity, resulting in treatment failure, but will rather blame the doctor than themselves.
Qualified Doctors should rally round and sanitise the NMA.

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